Keylogging scammers are once again laying siege to
World of Warcraft gamers.
In latest attack, malware designed to steal user names and passwords from
World of Warcraft players has been planted on maliciously constructed websites that pose as repositories for gaming advice.
Unprotected Windows users visiting these sites can get infected through malicious browser pop-ups. The malware also spreads through infectious emails, game forums, in-game chat, and other mediums. The culprit of the latest attack is a variant of PE-Looked (a strain that normally targets the popular online game Lineage), a representative from Trend Micro
told The Sydney Morning Herald.
The latest attack sparked a
warning from Eilanai, a moderator on the
World of Warcraft forum explaining how gamers might protect themselves from key logging scammers.
Many
WoW gamers have been hit by the scam and a good number are having difficulty getting access to their account, even after following the instructions of Blizzard Entertainment, the game's developer. "As there are many players affected by this issue, it may take some time for our Account Administration team to reach your issue and verify your ownership, so please be patient while waiting for a response," Eilanai wrote in response to an earlier forum
thread on the issue.
The problem flared up a week ago and is yet to be fully resolved, sparking complaints from
World of Warcraft participants such as
Reg reader Darren that gamers are paying for a service they are unable to access.
"Blizzard are still billing me for it even though I can't login into the game and use it. I've also telephoned the account and billing helpline three times and got no where at all. On my third telephone call yesterday, I was told by a message that the telephone lines were closed to due the amount of calls and waiting time," he told us.
Blizzard Entertainment did not respond to our requests for comment, at time of writing.
Virtual gold and other booty obtained via compromised
World of Warcraft accounts can be converted to cash but it's unclear if this is the motive of the attack.
In May, virus writers created
Wowcraft another Trojan targeting the
World of Warcraft community which, as with the latest assault, infected users by drive-by downloads.
Other attacks (example
here) try to steal the identities of players of other online games.
The REGister
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